$2.2 Billion Johnson & Johnson Settlement Over Schizophrenia Drug

By |November 5, 2013

Subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay $2.2 billion to resolve a suit involving, among other things, the marketing for off-label use of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, the Legal Intelligencer reports. It is the biggest settlement yet for a single drug, said Zane Memeger, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Janssen Pharmaceuticals is scheduled to plead guilty Thursday to a charge related to its marketing of Risperdal, which had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of schizophrenia, but was marketed for elderly patients with dementia and mentally-ill children. “Companies that decide to put profit over patients will be prosecuted,” Memeger said. Johnson & Johnson will also pay $149 million to settle claims related to kickbacks it allegedly paid to a long-term care pharmacy, said Attorney General Eric Holder.

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